Paul Weller - Wild Wood 2007 Deluxe Edition

Show

Soulsides,

Presenter

Claude Mono

Published

Monday 3rd December

Label: Island

The deluxe edition must be the last bastion of the album lover in the age of downloads. As a fan of the The Modfather’s work all the way back to my much loved vinyl copy of Sound Affects I had been waiting a long time for this 2007 reissue of his classic 1993 second solo album.

With a vast musical catalogue where the B-sides often exceed the A-sides and album purchases provide endless previously unheard treasures (see Confessions of a Pop Group) the critics usually point to either Wild Wood or its successor Stanley Road as his finest moment. With a fab 28 extra demos, remixes and radio sessions to provide context the answer might now be known.

This fully remastered production was directly overseen by the original production team of Mr Weller himself and Brendan ‘Kosmos’ Lynch. The crisp sound only enhances the amazing nuances of the original mastering with every guitar strum, snare lick, moog swirl, horn stab, and flute riff now totally visible in the mix but yet still plenty of space.

Wild Wood has this great folky funk feel to it and the extensive new sleeve-notes explain how much of the vibe came from the bands lock-in at the Manor Studio in Oxfordshire away from the London scene. The Manor itself has a history going back to the pastoral masterpiece Tubular Bells recorded there by Mike Oldfield in the early 70s – Wild Wood actually feels like it could have been recorded in 1974.

Highlights include all the demos but especially a Sunflower full of flute and Steve White’s loose beats that is better than the final cut, no less than four versions of Wild Wood, including the Portishead remix, and the seven-minute Shadow of the Sun. One for the summer nights ahead.